Wine and Sports: Two sub­jects every busi­ness pro­fes­sional should be able to talk about.

John Nord­strom made a pro­found impact on the way cus­tomers expect to be treated dur­ing their shop­ping expe­ri­ence by help­ing the Nord­strom depart­ment stores iden­tify cus­tomer ser­vice as its defin­ing characteristic.

I greatly admire and respect John, who was a for­mer owner of the Sea­hawks. I see him quite fre­quently and always enjoy our con­ver­sa­tions. Just last week, our con­ver­sa­tion turned to wine. John didn’t real­ize I enjoyed wine as much as he did, and we were quickly engaged in a con­ver­sa­tion about vari­etals, wine regions and vintners.

The topic of wine gives John and I another con­nec­tion point and increases the chance of future con­ver­sa­tions. That means more oppor­tu­ni­ties for me to hear John’s incred­i­ble insights and advice.

Your abil­ity to become a good con­ver­sa­tion­al­ist and an effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tor opens sim­i­lar doors. The more con­nec­tion points you can iden­tify with a busi­ness client, cus­tomer, col­league or poten­tial client, the more chances you have to con­verse. Those con­ver­sa­tions build rap­port and lead to increased busi­ness transactions.

Don’t worry about how much you know about wine or sports, just show­ing an inter­est is enough to make the ini­tial con­nec­tion. John is a fan of French wine while I pre­fer Wash­ing­ton wines. Both have their mer­its and both pro­vide con­ver­sa­tional opportunities.

The wine I’m drink­ing this week: Stopped by the Book­wal­ter tast­ing room in Wood­inville to pick up the new release of 2009 Caber­net Sauvi­gnon. To make room for those bot­tles, we opened a bot­tle of the 2008 Cab Sauvi­gnon; Wine Enthu­si­ast rated the last two releases above 90 points. It is a won­der­ful jammy wine, that paired nicely with braised short ribs.

Jen Mueller, America’s Expert Talker, is the Founder and CEO of Talk Sporty to Me. Jen is com­mit­ted to help­ing you boost your inter­per­sonal skills, engage in more effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion and reap the rewards of pro­duc­tive con­ver­sa­tions. She’s avail­able to speak for keynotes, pre­sen­ta­tions and work­shops. Con­tact jen@talksportytome.com for more infor­ma­tion and read more at http://talksportytome.com

Wine and Sports: Two sub­jects busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als should be able to talk about. Last week, we noted the value and impor­tance of mak­ing a con­ver­sa­tion plan before attend­ing a busi­ness meet­ing or func­tion, espe­cially if wine was being served. Think­ing through those details give you a leg up on the com­pe­ti­tion and give you one more way…

Wine and Sports: Two top­ics every­one should be able to talk about. I’m not sure where the assump­tion was first made that women pre­fer white wine and men pre­fer red. I can how­ever say, that’s not nec­es­sar­ily the case. It’s a per­fect exam­ple how­ever of a small detail that can derail a con­ver­sa­tion and make an unfavorable…

Wine and Sports: Two sub­jects every­one should be able to talk about. Pic­ture this: You’re cel­e­brat­ing the end of a long work­week and decide to go out for a nice din­ner with your sweet­heart. A glass of wine sounds like the per­fect way to unwind, but the wine list arrives at your table with a thud! …

“Under­served fam­i­lies in Belle­vue? You’re kid­ding.” I’ll admit that’s the first thing I thought when asked to join the Belle­vue Boys and Girls Club Board of Direc­tors. What I didn’t real­ize, is that area of Belle­vue near Belle­vue Square and The Brav­ern rep­re­sents a small part of the city’s pop­u­la­tion. There’s a much larger area…